by Alexandra in WMass
Sat Feb 4th, 2006 at 07:40:29 AM EST
| Josef Sudek was known as the poet of Prague. His Poetry was not about words or rhymes. He was a photographer who combined light, shadows, film, paper and a philosophy of life that gave him the patience to capture fleeting glimmers of the sun to create enigmatic compositions, panoramic landscapes to ponder and delight in, and still lives captured out of the mundane leftovers of everyday life.
He was born in 1896 in the town of Kolín before Czechoslovakia existed. During World War I he lost his right arm to the realities of trench warfare. And, into the 1970s, he could be seen wandering the streets and hills of Prague squinting with one eye to find the next place and time when he would set up his heavy antique plate cameras.
Here are some of his photographs; photos others took of him and some word to accompany this exhibit. | 
Josef Sudek in 1964
photograph by Josef Prošek |
Update [2006-2-1 22:40:13 by Alexandra in WMass]: - In response to a question I added a section in the comments on the realities of working with one arm.
Promoted by whataboutbob & bumped by DoDo
Evening on Charles Bridge - 1940-1950
From the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) collection , (Click on photo for more details)
Sudek believed in the intrinsic poetry of his beloved city - the landscapes, architecture, gardens, statuary, street scenes, as well as a more intimate poetry that could be found in music, in his friendships, and in the objects of his daily life. He savored the wait and exploration, and lived for that moment of epiphany when the poetry would reveal itself - even if only for an instant- before changing and having to be rediscovered. The photographer's patience was legendary
Source: Josef Sudek, Poet of Prague: A Photographer's Life published by Aperture in 1990.
"Rush slowly young man, rush slowly" were Sudek's words to a young photographer I know well. As Sonja Bullaty, an assistant and long time friend of Sudek's, recalls this "was Sudek's motto throughout his life. It expressed not just patience but a philosophy, the attitude that all's for the best. ... if something could not be achieved or photographed this year he could always come back another time". | 
Sonja Bullaty and Josef Sudek, 1945-1946 |
| As Sudek walked the streets of Prague he would return to places several times throughout the year to check on the light at a particular time of day, sometimes waiting several years before taking a photograph. Sudek's advice also applied to developing negatives. He would usually let a few years pass before starting work on a negative temporarily lost in the great mess of his studio.
Sudek may have developed his rush slowly approach early on when printing his first photographs.
As he explained:
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Labyrinth in my Atelier 1960 (click on the image for another picture in his labyrinth series) |
Photography, that was an adventure... Take an
enlarger, for instance; that was a funny box, where you put a negative on top, paper on the bottom and then you took the whole thing someplace in an open space without buildings, put it down on the ground, and exposed for several minutes by daylight. When I wanted to enlarge, that was not so simple, I had to wait for the weather not to be changeable, so the exposure would be even. That was not photography, that was meteorology. Today it is easier, only today I don't enlarge anymore.
Source: Sudek quoted in SUDEK by Sonja Bullaty published in 1978
Indeed, in 1940 after seeing a contact print from the 1900s and admiring it's quality he decided it was the technique that suited him best. Except for commercial photography from then on his prints were all the same size as his large negatives (13x18cm, 18x24cm, 24x30cm, 30x40cm, 10x30cm), often with a black edge added.
Still Life - 1954
From the MFA collection , (Click on photo for more details).
Untitled - 1967
From the MFA collection , (Click on photo for more details).
Fine grain, sharp contrasts and delineations didn't interest him, and he began to use tinted papers which enhanced the slightest gradation of tonality, while retaining the blurry contours of his forms. The images deepened, dark tones became almost unintelligible and shadows merged with the blackness of the borders.
Source: Josef Sudek, Poet of Prague: A Photographer's Life published by Aperture in 1990.
I've tried to find words to explain what I love about art and photography, Sudek's photographs in particular, but I'm no art historian or art critic despite living with a photographer. In the images themselves I see light and shadows, geometries and patters, sometimes even humor, sadness or calm all intertwined with the subject matter itself. See what you see.
--- HERE IN SEMI-CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER IS A SAMPLING OF SUDEK'S PHOTOGRAPHY ---
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Z Invalidovny
From the Veterans Hospital
1922-1927
From the MFA collection
(Click on photo for more details). |
Sudek - Words on World War I on the Italian front:
In the trenches, I was taking it easy, hanging as far back as I could. As punishment, I was assigned the worst placement. It was a hole next to the latrines, wet and reeking. And we were the last to get chow. Naturally, by the time food reached us it was cold. But when the tenth offensive took place, I was happy o find the place had a great advantage. When the "Eyetalians" (sic) started a barrage, the shells kept flying above the hole, ending up in the latrines. We were quite safe there. The next day when we got our rations, they were hot, because the poor buggers who had come first were all dead now.
I lost my arm during the eleventh offensive. We were ordered "forward" and as we charged out own artillery started shelling us from the back. I screamed, "Down!" at the boys but they never listened. As I was lying there I felt as if a rock hit me in the right shoulder. I started looking around but all the guys who had been standing were now dead. I crawled back to our lines, and as I was getting into a dugout, I slipped and it started to hurt. Then I lost consciousness.
Many years later in an interview, with his characteristic sense of humor, Sudek added:
The war destroyed my arm, later I lost it. Of course I did not enjoy that, but at least I was consoling myself that I did not lose my head. That would have been worse.
Source: Josef Sudek, Poet of Prague: A Photographer's Life published by Aperture in 1990.
Sunday Afternoon on Kolin Island
1924-1926
From the MFA collection
(Click on photo for more details).
In 1928 a limited edition portfolio of Sudek's photographs of St. Vitus Cathedral was publish. The introduction by Czech poet Jaroslav Durych reflected the patriotic mood on the 10th anniversary of the Czechoslovak republic as the cathedral's construction, started by Charles IV in 1344, was completed: "St. Vitus is a whole realm of light and shadow, which the nation started building at the dawn of its history: a tomb erected for all its dead. Its faces are as innumerable and the richness of its forms are as inexhaustible as the nation's own"
In his work Sudek juxtaposed the grander of the Cathedral with the tools and silhouettes of the workers finishing the monument.
View from above the Pinnacles and Flying Buttresses of the Cathedral of Saint Vitus, north-side from the portfolio Svàty Vit (Saint Vitus)- 1928
From MFA collection , (Click on the photos for more detail).
Third Courtyard of the Castle, Prague - About 1937
From MFA collection , (Click on photo for more details)
Sudek's ability to find deep emotions in the statuary of the cemeteries and monuments around him continued throughout his life.
(Click on the photos for more detail)
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During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Sudek retreated to his studio and started more a intimate series of "From the Window of My Atelier" photographs.
From the Window of My Atelier - 1944 -1954
From the MFA collection , (Click on photo for more details).
When I began to photograph my window during the war I discovered that very often something was going on under the window that became more and more important to me. An object of some kind, a bunch of flowers, a stone, in short, something separated this still life and made an independent picture. I believe that photography loves banal objects, and I love the life of objects. I am sure you know that fairy tale of Andersen: when the children go to bed, the objects come to life, toys, for example. I like to tell stories about the life of inanimate objects, to relate something mysterious: the seventh side of a dice.
Source: Sudek quoted in SUDEK by Sonja Bullaty published in 1978
On the Windowsill of My Studio - 1944 -1953
From the website of the Josef Sudek Studio, (Click on photo for more of Sudek's photographs).
Years of neglect led to the demolition of Sudek's old studio. It was reconstructed and opened in 2000 as a small museum and gallery for the works of Sudek and other photographers.
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During world war II Sudek also found, at a friend's in a small town in Moravia, one of his signature cameras, a 1894 Kodak camera.
It only had two shutter speeds but its rotating lens produced 10 by 30 cm negatives, which Sudek used for his famous Praha Panoramaticka , (Prague Panoramic) book published in 1959 with 288 panoramic contact prints. |
(Click on image for more details)
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Kampa ze Streleckeho ostrova - 1956
From George Eastman House collection , (Click on photo for more details)
View from Vrtba Garden Terrace - 1959
Cover of the 1992 re-issue of Praha panoramatická
(Click on photo for more details)
Peter Sramek , a professor of photography in Toronto, has created an interesting online gallery comparing Sudek's panoramas with more recent views of the same areas of Prague.
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A Summer Shower in the Magic Garden - 1954-1959
From MFA collection , (Click on photo for more details)
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Portrait of the Painter
Vaclav Sivko
1955
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Remembrances of E. A. Poe
1959 |
From MFA collection , (Click on photo for more details)
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Remembrance of Mr. Magician
(the garden of architect Rothmayer)
1959
From MFA collection
(Click on photo for more details)
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Memories, Lovers, IV Variations
1948-1964
From "Josef Sudek, Poet of Prague: A Photographer's Life" published by Aperture in 1990.
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Vicar's Lane
From Pražský chodec. Fotografoval Josef Sudek a 1981 book of Sudek's photographs titled walking in Prague.
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In August 1976 a large retrospective exhibition of Sudek's work organized by Anna Farova and honoring his 80th birthday was held in Roudnice . Sudek did not attend his openings but toured this exhibit after the guests left. Author and photographer Charles Sawyer wrote a beautiful account of the event . and took several pictures of Sudek that day and later at his studio. This was the last Exhibit held during Sudek's lifetime. He died later that year on September 15th in Prague. Here are a few of the photographs from that August, presented with the author's permission.
Sudek touring the empty gallery
1976 - by Charles Sawyer
A beautiful online album of Sudek's photographs is also available. He is one of many artists included in the stunning online Fine Art Photography Gallery and Forum .
For more information on Sudek' work and biography a full bibliography of Sudek's photography and a review a more detailed timeline of his life are available online.
